Hold My Hand
by MARVELous life
Summary: Holding hands. It was kind of their thing, though the Doctor would deny it - too domestic, he'd say. The story of the Doctor and Rose told through the simple act of holding hands. 9/Rose, 10/Rose, spoilers for series 1, 2, and Journey's End.


**Two stories in two days, yeah! I may or may not have another one up tomorrow, it depends on whether or not I finish it. And I think I will! For know, though, enjoy this Doctor/Rose fic, inspired by the 100 Themes Challenge list I found yesterday.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, Doctor Who is not mine. If it was, David Tennant would still be the Doctor, Rose would be with him still, and they would be admittedly in love. End. Of. Story.**

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Holding hands. It was pretty much their thing, though the Doctor would deny it—too domestic, he'd say. All the same, the simple act held such significance for the Doctor and Rose. He'd taken her hand and dragged her from the Autons, and then taken it again to run down the street towards the London Eye. Reaching out and linking hands had become such a simple, common act after that—a show of understanding as the Earth burned and they watched; encouragement as they went up to the 500th floor of Satellite Five; a source of comfort for Rose after seeing her father die. He had even taken her hands before kissing the Time Vortex out of her. It was their claim on each other, even if they adamantly refused being a couple—Adam saw it, Jack saw it, Mickey and Jackie saw it, everyone saw it.

Then the Doctor had changed, regenerated into a man that was new but the same, younger but older. He'd taken Rose's hand than, and she began to accept that he was still her Doctor, even if he had a new body—and a new personality. She'd returned the favor shortly afterwards, taking his hand to prove that, yes, she wanted to keep traveling with him. And then, like the Doctor, hand holding changed. Oh, they still linked their hands together in comfort and encouragement and understanding and a number of other things. Now, though, their fingers twined together more often than not, for no reason other than instinct, and neither of them minded the change. Even after Sarah Jane and Reinette, their hands continued to link on instinct, an even stronger claim on each other than ever before.

But then came Torchwood, Cybermen and Daleks, a parallel world and a parallel father, the Void, and Bad Wolf Bay. Both of their hands were left without their partners, and both the Doctor and Rose would find themselves reaching out, only to grasp air and be reminded that the hand they were reaching for was literally a universe away. The feeling burnt straight through to their respective hearts. It became like a depressing version of Goldilocks—no other hand felt _just right_, and the plot twist rendered it so they couldn't reach the one that did. It was agonizing.

She found a way back. She always found her way back, because she was Rose and he was the Doctor. They didn't get a proper reunion, and their hands didn't get to meet right away, but they did get a hug later, and they both relished the feel of the person in their arms. Her hand had slipped into his—_finally_—shortly after that as they stood on the Dalek Crucible and watched the TARDIS burn. He gripped her hand tightly, drawing comfort from his best source. Her Doctor and his Rose, hand in hand again.

The Doctor walked away from it all, literally empty-handed. Rose's heart went out across the multiverse to him, because she knew that feeling all too well. Standing on Dårlig Ulv Stranden, holding hands with her human-Time Lord Doctor that wasn't the Doctor, she decided that would live this fantastic life she had been given. She would live it for herself, for her human-Time Lord Doctor, and for her madman in his blue box.

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**What do you guys think? Leave a review or favorite, let me know! Ugh, do you guys have any idea how hard it was to get Google Chrome to understand that the words Dalek and Cyberman and Torchwood and multiverse and Darlig Ulv Stranden and Reinette and Autons are real words in my vocabulary? It was terrible.**


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